Mary Margaret Olohan on October 31, 2019
The Islamic State announced its new leader Thursday after confirming the death of its former leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
ISIS said al-Baghdadi will be replaced by Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Qurayshi, the Site Intelligence Group reported Thursday. Site Intelligence Group monitors extremist militant groups on the internet, including ISIS.
The intelligence group reported that ISIS identified al-Qurayshi as the “emir of the believers” and “caliph.” al-Qurayshi is largely unknown outside the ranks of ISIS, The New York Times reported.
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News of al-Qurayshi’s appointment followed President Donald Trump’s Sunday announcement that al-Baghdadi died in a U.S. raid in Northern Syria.
“He died after running into a dead-end tunnel, whimpering and crying and screaming all the way,” Trump said in his Sunday morning speech.
Al-Qurayshi’s death came after almost a decade as one of the world’s most-wanted terrorists. The terrorist became the leader of ISIS in 2013 and participated in aid worker Kayla Mueller’s brutal rape and murder in 2015.
